My Dog Tricked Me!
by GwennielOfNargothrond
Summary: Celegorm just wanted to go for a walk with Huan. But a mischievous dog and a mud don't mix.


_A/N: A little story I wrote: it is partly based on personal experience from a walk with my dog, expect that in my version there was more snow... _

**My dog tricked me!**

"Look, Huan. It has stopped raining!" Celegorm got up from his desk where he had, as he was supposed to, been studying. He opened the windows of his room and breathed in a fresh forestry air. His favourite smell. It had rained for quite some time today. The windows faced the yard and outside Celegorm could see large puddles on the ground and the flowerbushes hanging down after the downpour.

Huan raised his head where he had been sleeping and looked at his master. The young dog wagged his tail and Celegorm laughed at him. "Of course we are going to go out," he said. "A promise is a promise." He scratched the back of his dog. "I was done with studying anyway," he shrugged. He stuffed hastily the unfinished papers into a drawer, ran a comb through his hair, grabbed his walking shoes, took a look at himself in a mirror, ran a comb through his hair again, and then he was ready. Meanwhile Huan stood impatiently beside the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Celegorm sighed. "I just have to... Ah, you wouldn't understand. You're not an Elf." Huan barked. "A smart dog is not the same as an Elf," Celegorm replied as he opened the door and Huan slipped past him outside. "Even a dog of Oromë," Celegorm insisted.

The soil was wet, but the air fresh. The weather, with one of the first rains of the rainy season, had made the grass bend and the sand run in little streams down the gently sloping ground. Celegorm looked up at the sky where the clouds, already moving away, reflected the light of the mingling Trees. Huan walked beside him, behind him, around him, first roaming in the bushes, now stepping into puddles, then trotting at his master's feet. The young hound's back reached little past Celegorm's knees, but every now and again he would jump up, lean with his paws against his master's legs and bark playfully. Celegorm laughed again and ruffled the dog's cheeks. "Say what, Huan; what if we set out to visit our cousins?" Huan barked and Celegorm scoffed. Hadn't they visited them yesterday? "Yes, but... I think I forgot something there." Huan didn't reply and Celegorm looked suspiciously at the dog. "What, you think it's too far away to visit every day? Lazy dog. I know you like to go there as much as I do."

They continued the friendly bickering as they walked, with Celegorm soon trying to change the subject as Huan's replies started to grow on him. Celegorm could understand Huan's barking comments just as easily as any language, so although their conversation would have seemed very one-sided to an outsider they understood each other perfectly.

"Is not, Huan. Shut it. Who fed you that stuff? Caranthir?" Celegorm muttered. "I bet it was him..." He stopped suddenly, as did Huan when he noticed it. "But you are making a point," he said. "Not in that, of course," he scoffed and looked at Huan angrily. "But in the fact that we need to hurry if we intend to spend some time at the destination as well. I should have taken a horse." He looked around him. They were standing beside a big meadow. Across that field and a while's walk more was the house of Fingolfin. The road they were currently walking on would take them there just as well, but the journey by the road was longer and (in Celegorm's opinion) not very interesting.

Huan barked. Celegorm looked at the meadow for a while. "You want to take the shortcut over the meadow?" Huan wagged his tail. "It might be a bit muddy after the rain," Celegorm pointed out. "I'm not sure I want my boots dirty." Huan made a sound again. Celegorm's face turned red. "What did you say? I'm not a sissy just because - I'm not. And besides, I don't think you'd like to be muddy either." Huan continued to stare at him. After a few intense moments during which neither of them blinked, Celegorm grumbled and headed for the field.

At first the meadow turned out to be less muddy than the Elf had feared. The Elf and the dog walked side by side a while, but then Celegorm felt how heavy walking became. He looked at his feet. The soles of his boots were stuck to the moisty ground like a plunger on water. He yanked his feet and told the dog to wait for him. For a while that was the only incident they faced. Had they been luckier it would have been the only one, too, but the more they trodded into the field, the more obvious it became that Celegorm had been right form the start. The mud on the ground became deeper and deeper, and whereas Celegorm had troubles in walking in mud, halfway to his knee, poor Huan was almost swimming in the quagmire. "It's your own fault," Celegorm groaned in annoyance as he felt something wet against his leg inside his boots. Huan tilted his ears in embarrasment. The poor puppy roamed best as he could through the dirt. Celegorm looked at his friend half in amusement, half in pity. Then he took a few longer steps (not an easy task, actually) offering to walk in the front himself. "I'll walk before you and all you'll have to do is to follow in my path," he explained to the dog. "That will be easier for you, buddy." Huan nodded and followed Celegorm. It still wasn't an easy task and Celegorm wondered whether it was just his imagination or whether the mire just became deeper. This was definitely not the kind of experience he had expected. Of course it was natural that the rain would make the ground muddy, but... He mentally facepalmed himself. A meadow that had recently been heaved up and made ready for field for agriculture. Of course the soft soil had become all slippery and treacherous! His trail of thought was brought to an abrupt end as his leg was suddenly sucked in knee-deep mud. For a moment Celegorm thought he would make it, as he flailed wildly with his arms, attempting to keep his balance. But as he couldn't move his leg he splattered head first into the dirt.

He spluttered and spat out in disgust, but was glad his face and hair were still relatively clean and hoped that spreading his weigh on a larger area would at least keep him from sinking in completely.

As he was lying on his belly on the cold mud, he felt something soft trample on his legs. The light weigh moved up his torso onto his back and then it jumped off his shoulders. "What do you take me for, Eru-forsaken dog? A bridge?" Celegorm gasped. "I am not a bridge!" he said, but his voice was muffled as Huan's hindlegs pressed his face into the mud. "You are trying to drown me, you sneaky hound" Celegorm moaned, half laughing, half shouting in anger. Huan, who had been happy to use the Elf as a bridge to save his paws from sinking into the mire, wagged his tail and went on eagerly again. Celegorm muttered and cursed. Pulling himself up, he followed the dog. He grumbled to himself and tried to wipe the mud off his face in vain. "Is this what I get for trying to be nice to you..." he hissed. "...this is your idea of a joke, isn't it? Cursed dog..."

Celegorm was grateful to notice that they would soon at last come to the other side of the field. When he at last set foot on steady ground it was the most wonderful feeling. Huan was already shaking off what mud he could get off from his fur. Celegorm looked around to see whether anyone was around to notice them, then took off his overcoat. Shivering a bit in the chilly air, as he was now wearing only a simple tunic, he brushed away the worst dirt on his coat. He sighed: he'd have to borrow Fingon's or Turgon's clothes once he reached the house of Fingolfin.

Aredhel was standing on the veranda when she saw them coming. The smile on her lips soon turned into a frown but then back into an even broader smile when she saw the condition of her friend. Celegorm looked up from the path and waved to her a little sheepishly. Huan barked happily and ran to greet the girl in advance. It was ironic, Celegorm thought, that he, a son of Fëanor, should look so rugged and filthy even as she stood in her long pearly white dress, her hair beautifully falling onto her shoulders all clean and shiny.

Aredhel held back a laugh when Celegorm walked up the stairs to the veranda, leaving messy tracks on each step.

"Want a hug?" Celegorm said and opened his arms.

"Not really, no," Aredhel giggled as she refused the muddy embrace.

"I did comb my hair before we left," the boy shrugged. "But that dog tricked me to take a "shortcut"," he added, giving Huan a dirty look. Huan merely tilted his ears. Aredhel quirked an eyebrow.

"You silly Fëanorian," she said. "Really, you have to take off your shoes and pants before I can let you in."

"What about Huan?"

Aredhel mused a second. "Unless he's up for a nice cold bath with lots of soap, he'll have to stay outside.

Celegorm gave the dog a smug look. Huan yawned, signalling that he didn't really mind being left behind to explore the outsides of Lord Fingolfin's estate. Celegorm, however, didn't care. "Stay out now, you smelly dog," he said. "You smelly cheating dog."

Aredhel rolled her eyes. "You don't smell very charming either, prince Celegorm," she commented. Celegorm glanced at her as he started to take off his boots that now were maybe ruined for life.

"It's not my fault," he said. "My dog tricked me!"

Aredhel laughed. "Sure. Now let's get you a bath."


End file.
